Prayers Appreciated.

I grew up in a small church in Cambria. Cambria Christian Church. It is still in town today. I haven’t been in years. When my grandmother passed, it was really hard to walk through the doors that I had been in with her for many years. Before the new building was up and going, I can recall sitting in pews with my parents, my Grandpa Jack and Grandma Wilma, friends, my brother, and well, I knew just about everyone there.

Thinking about that church makes me think of prayer. That is where I really learned about prayer from Sunday School teachers, my own parents, and a host of others, like our minister, Joe Hamon, what prayer can do. As I got a little older, more and more members passed, and I grew up, my friends grew up, and even with all of those changes I still relied on, counted on prayer.

If you are a reader of this blog, you know that the majority of the posts come from my heart. There are days when I struggle at the keyboard to get something out without having a few tears, or without going through and deleting half of what I type.

Today is one of those days.

Today I am asking you (not only to read all of this but…) to please pray for Sam and me.

Life is full of surprises and moments that take your breath away, and you rely heavily on prayer, which is what we have done. If you aren’t the praying type, please send us well-wishes, good vibes, long-distance hugs, and warm thoughts over the next few days.

With that being said, I know some of you are wondering, “What is going on?” “Are they okay?” “What is she talking about?”

Memphis is awesome. He is great. (So are the other dogs)

Our kids are just fine. If they could stop growing and being awesome, well, we’d welcome time to slow down.

The Hoekstra’s are okay. We love each other more and more every.single.day. I’m so glad I get to do this thing called life with Sam by my side.

But I just have to say this: please respect our privacy over the next few days and give us a chance to find the right words and the time to express what we are feeling and going through.

We are okay. We’ve got each other. Our family. Our friends.